February 13th - Countdown to Valentine's Day - medical professionals

We have a friend - we have only known him for less than a year since he and his wife moved here to be near their daughter and family.  He has been unable to walk for a couple of years now.  Needless to say, he has spent a lot of time with doctors, but no one had been able to determine exactly what the problem was.  He has even had some back surgeries to try to correct the problem.

His daughter, a nurse, took him to yet another doctor.  This one took one look at all the x-rays of his back, knees, hips, and everything else, and said the problem is not the back or the knees.  Both hips need to be replaced.  This was the first time they really felt hope that maybe he would actually be able to walk again.

Today Don had the surgery to replace the first hip.  In six weeks, he will have the surgery for the other hip.  They have to do them so close together, because he can't do a lot of the therapy until both hips are replaced.  Good news is the surgery went well, just as planned.  They were going to make him sit up in bed late this evening and get up to take his first steps tomorrow.  We are glad that things are going well and hope that his recovery will be complete.

We have had our share of experience with medical personnel and, most of the time, they are great.  There are some doctors and nurses who don't seem to care or just go through the motions, but the good ones make a huge difference in the lives of their patients.  The nurses who provide care in the hospital are top notch.  They may be busy and feel overwhelmed, but they take time with each patient.

I am glad that there are people who are willing to give so much to help others who are sick.  I have special feelings of love for such care givers today.

February 12th - Countdown to Valentine's Day - Teachers

Another good Sunday.  I especially enjoyed our lessons in Sunday School and Relief Society.

In Sunday School, of course, we are studying the Book of Mormon.  Lisa is the name of the teacher and she is great.  You can tell she does a lot of studying and pondering as she prepares.  She always has insightful comments.  She sometimes looks at things from a slightly differently angle, and I like that.  I always feel like I have learned something - even when I have studied the same thing many times before.

The Relief Society lesson was about testimonies of Jesus Christ.  The teacher for that lesson was Angel.  She has been teaching for only a few months and feels overwhelmed teaching adults instead of children.  But, as a convert (of quite a few years now), she still shares an excitement about the gospel and the new things to be learned.  Her testimony is sweet and honest and there is always a wonderful spirit when she teaches.  These lessons from the teachings of George Albert Smith are wonderful, and the stories from his life are inspiring.  Angel does a great job of making those stories a launch pad for his teachings.

So today I have really enjoyed these teachers, as well as the teachers who teach on other weeks, and I have felt a special feeling of love for them.  They obviously spend time in studying, praying, and meditating in order to have these lessons change our lives.  Thanks to all of them.  I do love these wonderful sisters!

February 11 - Countdown to Valentine's Day - General Authorities

Today was the Worldwide Leadership Training and our stake chose to show it at 8 am!!!!  A bit early for a meeting, but I am up by then anyway, the turnout was quite good, and that did leave the rest of Saturday open.  What really mattered, of course, was that the training was really good.

I always enjoy hearing from the general authorities and in a meeting like this, they are a little more relaxed and more of their individual personalities come through.  The emphasis was on families and how councils in the church can help to strengthen individual families.

I enjoyed the training - and I could feel the love that the general authorities have for each of the members of the church, including me!  I love them back.  It was a wonderful way to start a day.

February 10th - Countdown to Valentine's Day! - Dad

I was able to spend almost the whole day working on my grandmother's family history.  I read all the letters that she wrote to my grandfather while they were courting.  I posted tons of pictures, news articles, and other things that tell about her life.

I also found pictures of my father when he was just a child.  I enjoyed looking at those pictures and imagining what he was like.  I knew him as a father, husband, patrolman, pilot, and many other ways, so I know some of his sense of humor and his mischievousness.  I could see some of that same twinkle in his face as a child.  He was a lot like my grandfather in that way.  He has always loved to make people laugh.

He was only 18 when my parents married; only 19 when I was born.  Even though he was young, he took his responsibilities very seriously and did everything he could to provide well for his family.  We didn't have a lot - patrolmen don't make a big salary - but we had what we needed and then some.

We had a lot of fun family time when I was growing up.  Again, we didn't do a lot of expensive things, but we did do a lot of things.  One of our favorite family activities was to go on picnics.  We often went down to a park in Fayette or to Echo Valley State Park close to West Union..  Our favorite place to go was to Pike's Peak, a state park on a huge bluff above the Mississippi River.  We always cooked hot dogs over an open fire, using sticks we pulled from the trees.  Mom would usually make a potato salad and we would have chips.  Of course, marshmallows always ended the feast once the fire had burned down to the perfect point.  My dad was a master at cooking those marshmallows to perfection!  We just burned ours, but not him.

He always encouraged us in our church activity.  He did not much like that Mom joined the church, but he thought it was great for his kids.  He pushed me to get my applications in for BYU early, so I could be accepted and have a place to stay on campus.  He insisted that I be married in the temple, rather than in a civil ceremony first, because he felt that it was too important to make it a "second" ceremony.

I have always been a "daddy's girl," and he still makes me feel like I am important to him.  I have been very blessed in having such a great dad.  My feelings of love have been centered on him a lot today.  Love you, Dad, and thanks for a great life!

February 9th - Countdown to Valentine's Day - My grandparents

Very predictably, I started my next family history project today.  It is the project I have been planning for some time and I am so glad to finally get going on it.  I am working on my grandmother's line (the Bacon/Wesco line) to put together a book.  I am hoping to visit with cousins later this year and wanted to have it ready to give to them.

I have already done a lot of work on this line, so I am just going back to verify that everything is correct, to see if I can find any more documentation, and to add pictures and stories.  Then I can pull the book together.  I am expecting it will take me two or three months to get it done.

So, today I started with my grandmother.  We pulled some things out of the attic several weeks ago and among those things were pictures, letters, and other documents from my grandparents.  Today I scanned a number of pictures in and wrote several stories based on the documents I found.  The stories included about their wedding, my grandmother's report cards, graduation, other schooling, etc.  It was really fun to look at these pieces and try to put together the story.  I have plenty more to do as I still have plenty of pictures and stories of the years following.

I loved all my grandparents, but there was always a little extra special feeling for Grandma and Grandpa Nelson.

When I was little, my Grandpa Nelson was my favorite person in the whole world - and I guess that never really changed much.  The year before he died, I flew back from Provo, where I was going to college, to drive him down to Texas from Iowa, where they had wintered for many years.  He could drive locally, but was not able to drive that long distance.  He took me around to everyone he knew so that he could show me off. 

He always had a twinkle in his eye and loved to tease, but it was always fun teasing, never hurtful.  He taught me to play cribbage when I was really little.  It was his favorite card game and he wanted a partner, I guess.  I was so small that I really don't even remember it.  I just remember that I have always known how to play cribbage.  A couple of winters when they didn't go to Texas, he drove a school bus.  I remember riding with him on the bus and being so proud that he was my grandpa!  He was born in Denmark, but was young enough when he came to the United States that he did not have an accent.  He did tell some stories about how poor they were there and how much they loved the United States.  He served in WWI in France.  He died in 1970.

My grandmother was one of the sweetest people I have ever known.  I never remember seeing her angry or mean.  She was gentle in her manner.  I noticed in her bridal memories book that she wrote about the flower girl and said "that pretty little Dorothy Knudsen."  That was a great example of how she saw every one - always sweet or pretty or kind.  She loved her grandchildren, and I was the oldest, so maybe got a little extra attention.  She always bought season passes for the local swimming pool and called it the Nelson pass - my cousins lived in town, but she always added my brother's and my names to the list so we could swim when we were visiting.  She would sometimes give my cousin Shirley and I a dollar each and let us walk uptown to shop.  Our favorite snack at her home was an ice cream soda, made with 7Up, ice cream, and chocolate syrup.  She gave me her sewing machine when I graduated from high school and I still have it.  It is one of those little Singer's and must have been one of the best ever made.  I also have her cedar chest that she had before she married.  She died in 1965.

So, today my grandparents have been at the center of my thoughts and they have definitely brought out many feelings of love.  I have been very lucky to have grandparents as wonderful as they were!

February 8th - Countdown to Valentine's Day - Mom

I finished matching all the names in my Roots Magic files with NewFamilySearch, so I finally got to start on some other things that I have been anxious to do in genealogy.  The first thing was to connect a cousin to the tree.  He had written me a note, since my email got hacked and he didn't have the new one.  He is only a little younger than I am, but I really don't know him - other than by correspondence.  I hadn't ever connected him into my family tree, so that was a priority for me.

His grandfather and my grandfather were brothers.  They both came from Sweden in the early 1900's, at different times.  I vaguely remember his grandfather and I probably met Gene when we were little at a family reunion, but we never had a lot of contact with that side of the family.  I had his grandparents in the tree, but I hadn't done their children, etc., so that is what I worked on today.

Doing that brought my focus to my mother.  Her father, my grandfather, was the kind of man who didn't talk much to children or interact on a personal way with them.  I don't ever remember him giving me a hug or sitting in his lap, although I probably did when I was really tiny.  We spent a lot of time at their home, but other than his being there, I didn't connect with him much at all.  I think it was just the old world Swedish way of doing things.

I have wondered how he was to his children, especially my mother.  She was the oldest and he was not her biological father.  I know she was a bit rebellious and she told about being disciplined with a razor strap.  And yet there were other things that happened that showed he really did love her.  I know he doted on John, the only son.  Life on a farm is not easy and everyone had to pull their weight.  We even had chores when we would come to visit.  My mother grew up during the depression, having been born in 1929, and pictures from the time show that they didn't have much in the way of clothing or shoes.  They did have food to eat - one of the perks of farm life.  And I know the family was close, because they all worked together.

And yet, out of that difficult time, my mother became such a warm and loving person.  She was always looking to find ways of helping other people.  She was always smiling.  People were drawn to her and liked to be around her.  She was a terrific mother, keeping us safe and making us become independent at the same time.  We always knew that her family was the most important thing in her life.

So today, I have been remembering my mother and feeling my love for her again.  She passed away in 2001, after several years of dealing with the effects of Alzheimer's.  I really lost her completely a few years before she actually died.  But, my memories of her are a lifetime of good things and happy memories.  I love you, Mom!

February 7 - Countdown to Valentine's Day! - Dawn

We had one of our visiting teaching socials at my house this evening.  There were about 8 of us.  I got the group started with the socializing by having them each take a turn telling a little about herself.  Once it got going, I started the interviews in the other room.  One nice thing is once they got started, they had plenty to say and conversation never lagged.  One of the purposes of doing these socials was to help the sisters feel closer to each other and I think that is working out well.

The highlight of the evening for me was after I had finished the interviews and went back in with the group.  They had divided into two groups and each was having interesting conversations.  The group I joined was talking about the nonmember husband of one of them.  She was expressing how great he is, but how he wants nothing to do with the church.  She made the comment that she couldn't believe she was sharing some of these feelings.  (Good sign that she was really comfortable and feeling a bond.)  One of the other sisters began to share the story of her mother and how she was not active for years and years and then late in her life, she finally worked to be worthy to go to the temple.  It was her story that pulled me in.

Her mother was in her 80's and after working really hard had set a date to go to the temple.  She had her special recommend and the date was set with the temple.  Everyone was very excited.  Then, just a week before she was to go, she passed away.  Dawn, the daughter telling the story, said that they contacted the temple and asked if they had to wait a year.  They were told that since she had her recommend and all arrangements had been made that they could do her work immediately, which they did.

After she had finished, I commented that I remembered that happening while I was a temple worker - the family had come to do the work for a sister who had passed away and they were able to do it, because all the preparations had already been made.  Dawn looked up at me and said, "Yes, and you were the proxy for my mother when I was sealed to her."  My mouth dropped open.  "That was you?"  I had not known her at that time and I didn't remember the people, only the event, even though we were in the same ward.

With tears, she told me that she remembered and that she had been proxy for her mother when her parents were sealed, and then I had taken her mother's place, so she could be sealed to her parents.  I absolutely got goose bumps up and down my arms.

I have always liked Dawn, but I had not remembered her at the temple that day, although that particular event had been very special.  Now I feel an incredible sense of connection with Dawn.  I can honestly say I had some very powerful feelings of love tonight!